Of course, some may say NE isn't guaranteed to be there for the unimaginable, ridiculous, pull my fingernails umpteenth time but really, forget Jax, can the Steelers do the magic next week? Or the Vikings or the Saints later?? How about the Eagles? Nahhh, Bellichick will eat up the Iggles offense. So, I sure hope there's one team left that can do it but I am not so sure so I'm looking for some hope, a vote of confidence, even a minuscule one from you all out there.

Me? I am leaning towards the Vikings as I think they have the right players on defense to give Gronk a hard time and enough pass rush to make Brady do what he doesn't want to do. And on offense they can move the ball enough, with this QB of theirs having a career year, a QB that somehow makes people miss back there and can scat for some yards.

I love Brees and it would be a heck of a SB matchup between him and Brady but I don't think they have the defense the Vikings have. But it could be a shoot out, a fun SB, until the end however, when NE somehow pulls it out.

Anyway, someone pls tell me there's a team left that can prevent the unimaginable, the utterly ridiculous. Or am I doomed to suffer through another terrible, hopeless off-season.

To further elaborate, Jax has the defense up front to pressure Brady and make him uncomfortable the whole game. Plus they have Coughlin back there again, and he knows how to best defend the Pats. Only reservation I had against the Jaguars was their offense, but after putting up 42 points today against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, I'm not concerned.

If not the Jaguars, I'll be hoping they play the Vikings in the SB. Watching them now, they're making Drew Brees look like Jay Cutler. Plus, the Vikings would be the first team in history to host a SB and be a participant, so they would have that going for them too.

Oh the memories, as I watch the Vikings against the Saints. There's a Tony Sparano sighting, as he now coaches the O-line for the Vikes (and apparently doing a decent job). Rick Spielman, the Viking GM, doing a much better job at it than when he was with the Dolphins. And over on the Saints is Ted Ginn Jr, who now catches balls and runs downfield, instead of out-of-bounds. Oh, and let's not forget Drew Brees, who Saban picked Culpepper over. Wonder how much different the Dolphins would have been with Brees there the last 10 years?

Oh the memories, as I watch the Vikings against the Saints. There's a Tony Sparano sighting, .....Rick Spielman, the Viking GM, .....Ted Ginn Jr, who now catches balls and runs downfield, instead of out-of-bounds. Oh, and let's not forget Drew Brees, ....

You talk about memories, as I was watching the Steelers debacle today in Pittsburgh, at home in front of their fans, I remembered Shula's Dolphins doing that to us year after year even with Marino but with no running game and that terrible defense with Tom Oliva-no-Defense as the DC, winning through the season, making the playoffs, looking dominant along the way, getting us fans all giddy, only to choke in the playoffs leaving us disappointed again and again. That's what the Steelers fans feel today and as I was recollecting our years, comparing those feelings to today's, which by now have become almost total indifference, I can understand why we all wanted Shula to go.

Interesting how disappointment and the resulting anger is a much more powerful feeling than the indifference this lousy franchise today generates. I would kill to have those disappointing years again.

NE is not winning the super bowl. They are vulnerable and there are problems there. Dont know if the loss comes next week or in the super bowl but it is coming. They are also losing both coordinators. That will set them back. Its Dolphins time now ... The team that took NE down.

Your only hope now are the Vikings and I think Bellicheat can handle the mighty Case Keemun. Jacksonville has been very lucky. I find it hard to imagine any team that lost to the 49ers and the Cardinals has a prayer of winning the Super Bowl, much less beating NE. Pittsburgh’s coach was an idiot on Sunday calling for that onside kick. Didn’t even give his team a chance. Ben threw for 5 TD’s, but can’t help u when u let your opponent chew all the clock in a 9 yard drive for the winning FG. Some of these playoff results almost have me believing the games are fixed. That mistackle whiff in the last play of the Vikings game was so mind-numbingly stupid and the Eagles holding the Falcons to 10 points was so improbable.

The only team that won convincingly were the NFL’s darlings, beating up a cream puff that should never have advanced to the divisional round.

1 for 10 / 6 for 98. Don't believe there was a declined penalty against the Pats. Just pointing out the facts.

They do get the calls, but Jax deserved their penalties. I'm sure there are a lot of holding calls that are allowed to protect Brady.

BTW, that was some of the best that I've seen Brady throw. A couple of his deep passes that were dropped, those that he shouldn't have thrown as there was double-coverage right on the receiver, hit the receiver right in the chest. The Jaguars have to be thinking that the game was 3 minutes too long.

1 for 10 / 6 for 98. Don't believe there was a declined penalty against the Pats. Just pointing out the facts.

They do get the calls, but Jax deserved their penalties. I'm sure there are a lot of holding calls that are allowed to protect Brady.

BTW, that was some of the best that I've seen Brady throw. A couple of his deep passes that were dropped, those that he shouldn't have thrown as there was double-coverage right on the receiver, hit the receiver right in the chest. The Jaguars have to be thinking that the game was 3 minutes too long.

The combination of the penalties that the Patriots deserve, that don't get called. And the freak calls and plays that are called in the Patriots favor..

Can someone educate me on why Myles Jack’s strip/fumble was called dead after the play? Why wasn’t he allowed to run back? It would have been 6 for Jax. I didn’t see anyone touch him on the ground.

The lack of responses tell me that dead call was total bull**** like I thought. The announcers didn’t even say a word about it.

I think Romo mentioned it cost them 6 points. Peter King tweeted it should have been a TD.

The thing is Jacksonville had plenty of chances to put the game away and did not, so I can't totally buy into a giant conspiracy. But little bits of info keep coming out (like this one) that point to some bias by the refs (especially of the refs congratulating NE players, think Jorge Sedano had that one).

I'm totally on the dump on NE bandwagon, heaven knows, but....look, they lost Gronk early in the game and still moved the ball and scored when they had to...they were facing a young, fast defense and were trailing, all the elements for a human QB to press, get sacked, fumble or throw a pic....but Brady is above human and so none of those things happened...NE coaches (surprise!) adjusted in the second half and Jax coaches failed to counter...they could not run although they tried and just wound up on 3rd and longs, exactly where NE wanted Bortles. You could see the itchy feet.

And I'm sorry but bringing the refs deal into this is just sour grapes. Ref injustices it's how it is in the NFL now. I see blown calls in every NFL game, even by these so-called "all star" ref teams, and PI, among forward progress and blowing the play dead, is/are the most outrageous of them all. The NFL has to change their selective use of replay. You should be able to review everything and I don't care how long it takes. The refs can't keep up with the modern speed of the game and it's only gonna get worse for them. The game has changed and I don't care how many are full time, you can't train the eye to see everything, it all happens so fast now. Consequently they get so many things wrong and often in big games that it is idiotic to now use the technology available. And at least they should change PI from a spot foul to the college rule. Players on both sides know and try to get away with what they can and like offensive holding one can call PI on almost every downfield pass.

Kudos to NE, let's hope Philly can bring something to the table, but I'm not holding my breath.

Last edited by carreramia on Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Jammer. I get what you are saying, and I am as impartial as you can be on mostly any subject, I look for the facts, but THAT is egregious and unacceptable. That is 7 points added to the already leading team in a conference championship with 8 minutes left. Instead, Jax gets the ball inside the 35 and goes 3 & out and the Pats get good field position just two minutes later.

I don’t even care at this point. Like I’ve said before. NE has already won it all. They have everything one regime could ever ask for. Anything beyond this point is more icing on top of the already iced up Patriots cake. You saw Myles Jack’s reaction to the dead whistle. That mfer had a strip fumble off a potentially huge NE play in crunch time and turned it into 7 for his team. He was denied that.

I have been watching the game for a little over 12 years and I truly believe that was the worst call I have ever seen. Unacceptable. Probably doesn’t beat the Tuck Rule though. THAT was something else. Literally a gift.

I had high hopes for Jax, but at the end of the first half when they had like 39 seconds and 2 timeouts and they did nothing but kneel and head to the locker room, I knew they would lose. Maronne basically said he was scared Bortles would make a mistake and give the Pats an easy score. No wonder why Buffalo fired him. You can not play not to lose against the Pats, they will beat you every time.

now I can rest....had two objectives going into the 2017 season: Fins to look respectable, competitive, give a hint they are improving, and two, for NE to not win the SB again. One out of two ain't bad. Thank you Iggles!!